In the drilling and completion industry, the formation of boreholes for the purpose of production or injection of fluid is common. The boreholes are used for exploration or extraction of natural resources such as hydrocarbons, oil, gas, water, and alternatively for CO2 sequestration. To increase the production from a borehole, the production zone can be fractured to allow the formation fluids to flow more freely from the formation to the borehole. The fracturing operation includes pumping fluids at high pressure towards the formation wall to form formation fractures. To retail the fractures in an open condition after fracturing pressure is removed, the fractures must be physically propped open, and therefore the fracturing fluids commonly include solid granular materials, such as sand, generally referred to as proppants.
The granular material used for proppant can be brought to the well site via road, rail, or water. Transportable silos containing the proppant are situated at an area near the borehole and a conveyor belt system is used to deliver the proppant to a hopper, which subsequently feeds to a blender as needed, for blending with liquids and other additives to form the fracturing fluid.
As time, manpower requirements, and space issues are all variable factors that can significantly influence the cost effectiveness and productivity of a fracturing operation, the art would be receptive to improvements in containers for bulk solids and methods for using such containers to improve the processing of fracturing fluids.